Today for our featured presentation we are happy to feature Kyle Gomboy of G23D Studios who will present about his latest work involving virtual spaces, 3D printing, Unity3D, and the "No School or Good Cause Left Behind" initiative.

About Kyle Gomboy:

Kyle "G" of G23D Studios is a former aerospace test and measurement engineer for RF Microwave/Millimeter wave components that have been used on such platforms as the Cassini space probe, F22 Raptor Superfighter, Space Shuttle and geostationary satellites such as GPS to name a few.

For such projects as deep space probes, military applications such as phased array honeycomb radar systems and similar complex electrical and electronic systems he found 3D visualizations to be crucial and universal in understanding such information and educating users on assembly, purpose and functionality.

He is now CEO of G23D Studios, which currently has four major in-house projects underway including the Virtual Manufacturing Plant, Virtual Hospital, Virtual Engineering and The Telemetric Robot. These projects have caught the attention of other similar companies and individuals who have brought G23D their own ideas to produce and thus revolutionize the way we interpret and analyze data using 3D.

G2 Proto: OK so I'll start with 2Cube, 2Cube is a Unity3D/Photon Server/Kinect/Mobile application. As a former Aerospace engineer I was often confused by expensive and complicated CAD/Design software for 3D. Lately with the drop in 3D printers this problem is especially glaring. How do we get kids and adults to make their own models and structures easily and fun?

So using Kinect cameras from Microsoft I thought we could create a paradigm for modeling using your body. After all it is more natural, especially in terms of sculpting.

The next slide shows our alpha of the app made in the last 4 days. What you see is a sphere which has had a dimple put in it by moving your hands forward towards Kinect

G2 Proto: also if you hold "tools" in your hand you begin to effect the shape based on what you hold, so it becomes very similar to sculpting in the real world, add sterescopic3d glasses or Oculus and you really get a vibe of sculpting

The video is rushed and kinda horribly done. it was for a request from ABC's SHarkTank show to have us on and needed by yesterday. They said to have fun with it so we did! A better one will be up in days but you will see how my body is purple in Unity3D

Joel Savard: iron man cad is already here - way to go, kyle ;)

Buffy Beale: yay Joel!

CarmenLittleFawn: hehehe

G2 Proto: lol ty

So my purple body read from Kinect indicates I am out of the modeling zone, I push my hands forward they turn green in Unity3D thus effecting the shape. The further I press my hands or shaping tools forward the more impact they have. Then I can rotate the model and change it more. When the model is done you can use Kinect to click the "Save" button and it exports currently to .obj mesh format, but soon to .stl for directtCNC/3D printer use

Rhiannon Chatnoir: for those that aren't as deep into virtual or 3D building, you can convert an .obj to use in Second Life or Open Sim

Rhiannon Chatnoir: and 3D printers use the .stl file type to pritn from

Rhiannon Chatnoir: tell us more about that, must have been interesting to get an invite from the TV show Shark Tank to be able to pitch this idea?

G2 Proto: it was very exciting to get the invite yes but also now I'm frightened. it isn't called Minnow Tank! but ABC expressed a lot of excitement as has Unity3D for Unite 2013

Joel Savard: how can we get notified when you're on the show?

Rhiannon Chatnoir: great, and yes the show can be intense...key seems to be convincing the sharks of the value of your project/service/tool

Beth Ghostraven: haha Rhiannon

Rhiannon Chatnoir: thats great

G2 Proto: my http://facebook.com/g23ds page Joel

Now what's really cool is Photon networking, our next iteration will network the model changes so you can invite friends or peers in and you can both sculpt or engineer collaboratively.

For CAD stil functionality you can use voice commands with Kinect to make hard edge shapes, then fit that shape with others

Yes .stl creates a "toolpath", which drives the CNC cutting head or 3D printer extrusion head. We have this done automatically for you. 3D Printers can be had for under $500 USD now. When networked all your changes are in real time and you can add images surrounding your model for reference

JoJaDhara: ;)

Joel Savard: g2 - just heard that you'll be able to get 3d printers at STAPLES in the next month!

Buffy Beale: no kidding?

Rhiannon Chatnoir: nods to JoJa, JoJa is working with a Fab lab in the Netherlands btw and Fab is just short for Fabrication

Joel Savard: online at first, and then in "selected markets" by end of june was the announcement i saw

G2 Proto: of course you don't have to 3D print you can use the models in any game engine. yes to Staples! You can also use http://shapeways.com to print it for you. This will initially act as a litemodelor/CAD app so kids and adults can use it but later it can become more sophisticated.

Joel Savard: i think it's one of the ~$1300 range models, but seems like once it hits staples... things are about to change in a big way

SarvanaHaalan: 3D printing has been featured on the national news a lot lately

JoJaDhara: yes..cool to do

Andy Evans: What will consumers buy these 3D printers for first?

Merry ChaseMerry Chase wonders how large is a ream of 3D printer paper...?

Beth Ghostraven: and naturally, what the public sees on the news is 3D printers used to make weapons

G2 Proto: its actually an ABS plastic spool, it is about $25 and comes in many colors, so it is the ultimate "rezz"

JoJaDhara: or pla?

G2 Proto: yes pla too!

Buffy Beale: ty Joel

Joel Savard: i'm going to have to jump for meeting, but great stuff kyle - thanks!

Rhiannon Chatnoir: yes or PLA

JoJaDhara: i notice more people in art or business are buying for prototyping but when they realize they can print out that missing part of kitchen thing... more will buy I guess

G2 Proto: cool Joel

in testing the app has been very well received expecially after you practice some. I am looking for beta testers when we do a limited release in a few weeks

Rhiannon Chatnoir: btw ABS and PLA are types of plastic that is used in the 3D printers, it basically is low temp enough to melt and be extruded to print your objects

Oronoque Westland: 3D printing sounds like RLrezzing

G2 Proto: imagine your kid breaks a part from his RC toy or you break your glasses, now you can use a micrometer to gauge it or Kinect can capture a reference model and you can fix it yourself. There are even RGBY color printers now for full color models and more expensive metal and porceline substrate models even huma biological models

JoJaDhara: and on is best for nature pla is made frm sugar thingy

JoJaDhara: wow

JoJa Dhara: and and leap motion

Rhiannon Chatnoir: Oronoque, it is in a way like real life rezzing

JoJa Dhara: ?

Thynka Little: Moms will be printing homemade party favors for their kids' birthdays and posting the pictures on Pinterest :)

Dae Miami: how does this differ from 3d scanners?

G2 Proto: Kinect is a sort of 3D scanner

Beth Ghostraven: does anyone else remember the Plasti-goop toy for making shapes out of plastic?

Rhiannon Chatnoir: and if we can get to a point where we could easily and collaboratively build something here in a virtual space and then print to make it real - and have that be a fluid / easy process ...would be magic

G2 Proto: though not as precise as expensive ones it does work well, so we're making modeling simpler and fun. any questions so far?

Rhiannon thats exactly right!

Rhiannon Chatnoir: no Beth? Though some people refer to it as almost like those Playdoh toys that would extrude to make things.. just a more permanent variant

G2 Proto: yes!

Hour Destiny: Figurines for trading/collectible card games.

Em Ellsmere: how do we get in the beta tester group?

Beth Ghostraven: yes, that too, Rhiannon

G2 Proto: or do it yourself legos is another accurate analogy

Stylianos Mystakidis: Read the Stevenson's Diamond Age to see teh possible future of 3d printing

Beth Ghostraven: Neal Stephenson, STylianos?

G2 Proto: the entire system will be under $1,000 including software, a printer and Kinect in a bundle with just the software being anywhere from $25 to $150 if you have your own printer and camera. It will also soon work on all mobile touch screen devices.

Rhiannon Chatnoir: I have had that comment come up before in convos Sylianos!

Rhiannon Chatnoir: I know I have seen you take requests for beta testers on your Facebook group

Beth Ghostraven: Hope, what's E3?

Jen: RL is dragging me back. Great info today. Thanks

Hour Destiny: Electronics Entertainment Expo.

Em Ellsmere: is the camera the same one as the kinect on xbox?

Rebekah Cavan: thanks!

Rhiannon Chatnoir: a big Entertainment focused convention Beth

Andy Evans: Rhi, beta testers should be invited to report back here! With pics or video

Rhiannon Chatnoir: indeed!

G2 Proto: Hour to nest it was just a cobbled together proof of concept 4 days ago, now it works and works far better than expected as I hired a genius programmer who used to write drivers for scanners/OCR because it was so well received I'm getting messages from Microsoft's Kinect group and others and MS Kinect even had great ideas about using their new SDK which allows you to grab and twist and has finger recognition

Rhiannon Chatnoir: You had also mentioned the "No School or Good Cause Left Behind" initiative.. can you chat some on that and your Open Source focus on some of this.

G2 Proto: yes, I am merging 2Cube with the G-Motion kit a Unity3D/Photon networked multi user project kit. It will be 100% free and open source under MIT license. I am down to coding the avatar selection system which will be done in days. This avatar selection system will allow you to customize your avatar in CMS or LMS systems so you can hop from world to world and look the same

Pamala Clift: That is really quite awesome of you

Hour Destiny: www.leapmotion.com The Leap Motion Controller is $80 and is similar to the Kinect, but more for your hands and more precise.

Beth Ghostraven: oh, that's awesome!

Sarvana Haalan: cool

G2 Proto: I was always bothered by the fact teachers had to pay for virtual worlds often out of their pocket and students couldn't take their work with them so the G-Motion kit will be paid for by things like 2Cube and given for free to all

Andy Evans: We could make 3D statues of our avatar!

G2 Proto: yes! You could scan in your own body using Kinect and make your own avatar

Sarvana Haalan: scan me!!!!!

Sarvana Haalan: :-)

Rhiannon Chatnoir: lol

Beth Ghostraven: yes, but could you find mesh clothes to fit?

Buffy Beale: that is so fun

G2 Proto: Im too skinny so I'll use 2Cube to add some more muscles ;)

Merry Chase: you could modify once in-world, to fit your mesh outfits

Rebekah Cavan: :)

G2 Proto: you could in fact 2Cube will later allow for clothing as we have a project underway now with a major clothing retailer. You can even use 2Cube to create custom items like belt buckles, jewelry etc, and pick them up at the store

Beth Ghostraven: RL clothing retailer?

G2 Proto: I'm under NDA with the retailer but suffice to say you will be using 2Cube in a store near you this year

Merry Chase: Could you potentially scan an entire endangered historic building for example and model it?

G2 Proto: yes!

Andy Evans: I could envision a "Flash Print" mob where people create the same jewelry to get into an event within a specific time frame

Rhiannon Chatnoir: architecture is sometimes easier if there are any plans still left to model from, but there are large scale scanners out there or using photo data to do such ... Google has put thought into this with their Google earth that also had Sketchup data, etc

Beth Ghostraven: cool idea, Andy!

G2 Proto: FInally a quick note on "G-Telemetric" work is underway to allow G-Motion to talk with Arduino, robots, SCADA, medical machines, industrial test and measurement to remotely controol and capture and visualize data in 3D

Merry Chase: I remember that toy that created little plastic objects - plastiform or something? Anyhow one fear is that this becomes like that, a mere generator of soon-unwanted clutter for landfill.

G2 Proto: exactly 2Cube is a similar concept to Sketchup make it simple easy and most importanly fun so people think "I can do this"

Sarvana Haalan: will be share this transcript with our Baltimore Tech group... great info G2Proto

Rhiannon Chatnoir: do you have the link to your schedule on your site?

Dae Miami: where can we get information on your unity 3d classes?

G2 Proto: I do a beginner, intermediate and advanced course perpetually. I hosed up my recurrence on my site http://3dg2.com I'll fix it today. But thats where you can find it along with http://facebook.com/g23ds

Rhiannon Chatnoir: great, so if this is interesting, and you want to try to set up your own Unity virtual space or maybe work on a game.. they are good to check out. Any other last questions/thoughts for Kyele?

Hour Destiny: G2 Proto is also on Twitter at @g23ds.

Thynka Little: Will you be presenting at Unite in Vancouver?

G2 Proto: yes combining the free G-Motion Unity kit with the classes also free means we get everyone onvolved

Thynka it looks like it I was late with entering but they seem to be going to squeeze me in ;)

G2 Proto: I'll keep you posted on that and SharkTank on the FB and Twitter pages, if I missed any questions let me know

Rhiannon Chatnoir: great, yes pass me any updates :)

G2 Proto: will do Rhiannon and thanks everyone for the time and excellent feedback. PS 2Cube will worth mouse and keyboard too just not as cool

Rebekah Cavan: thank you! this is very exciting!

Rhiannon Chatnoir: Let's thank Kyle / G2 Proto for presenting today!

Buffy Beale: cheering for you G2, it really is exciting!

Merry Chase: ...Kicking my slow connection and bad graphics card that barely allow me to use SL - wondering what tech requirements would be to do some dreams up educational dreams - looking for the grants info!

CarmenLittleFawn: ty so much for sharing G2, sorry every body I need to leave, my time seclude has changed, I am trying to make as many of the meetings as I can right now and participate in the group as a whole, tc :-)